Req #49510 [Com]: boolean validation fails with FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=49510&edit=1 ID: 49510 Comment by: pgarvin76 at gmail dot com Reported by: m dot kurzyna at crystalpoint dot pl Summary: boolean validation fails with FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE Status: Assigned Type: Feature/Change Request Package: Filter related Operating System: Linux PHP Version: 5.3.0 Assigned To: pajoye Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Never mind my last comment. I was using the wrong executable when running the tests. The fix works. However, this patch was not merged into the 5.3 branch. Can we get it merged for 5.3.19? Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2012-10-26 03:32:23] pgarvin76 at gmail dot com There was a fix committed in branch 5.4.8 (a26390ef0c22be3637795d9b5ab1c445e1d3f847). But the problem still persists for me. The test file (bug49510.phpt) fails on my fresh build. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2012-09-12 20:22:38] dernelson at corelogic dot com The question the developer is asking filter_var() is: "is boolean FALSE a valid boolean", and the answer filter_var() is giving back is "nope." Regardless of the technical details underlying the implementation, there is an obvious problem here. Short of changing PHP so that (string)FALSE === '0' (hah), I would suggest an explicit test case for boolean FALSE values, so that the function can return boolean FALSE in those cases, instead of NULL. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2012-07-15 04:57:34] stas@php.net Filters operate on strings. So any value that is passed to the filter_var() will be coerced into string. This means (boolean)false and '' is exactly the same for the filter. And that means the callbacks will be receiving strings too. Now, the docs specifically say '' is a valid value for "boolean" filter and is converted to false, so '' should not return NULL with FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE I guess since it's documented not to be failure value. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2012-06-24 00:34:38] 2072 at teaser dot fr Knowing this issue I wanted to make a boolean validation filter of my own using FILTER_CALLBACK but it suffers from the same problem, these filters are not "boolean safe". It appears that what is to be validated is first converted to a string. So when given (bool)true my callback actually receives (string)'1' and (string)'' when given (bool)false. There is definitely something wrong. (I'm using PHP 5.3.8) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-09-01 13:55:06] schkovich at gmail dot com filter_var(false,FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN,FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE) // got NULL, expected false That does not make sense at all! Further on, I have to agree with m.kurzyna that since false === (bool)"" filter_var("",FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN,FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE) should return FALSE and not NULL. Basically, as implemented, getting FALSE from filter_var(false,FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN) means that validation failed. It appears to be a design problem since filter_var() as specified will return FALSE if the filter fails making it impossible to distinguish if filter failed or valid FALSE value is returned. Therefore, instead returning FALSE if filter fails perhaps warning could be issued or even better exception thrown. On addition when voting I've wrongly selected that I am not using the same version and the same operating system. Correct ones are: PHP Version => 5.3.2-1ubuntu4.2 System => Linux schkovich 2.6.32-24-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 20 14:21:58 UTC 2010 x86_64 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The remainder of the comments for this report are too long. To view the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=49510 -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=49510&edit=1